Rep. Bill Kramer (R-Waukesha) tipped me to this little power freeze, known as AB 787 introduced into the Assembly to keep control of the Office of the Commissioner of Insurance for another three years after losing the governor’s office. To wit, it changes the appointment from an “at the pleasure of the governor” appointment to a fixed 4-year appointment ending in the third year of the governor’s term.
Why is this so noxious? The OCI pretty much has free hand in regulating the entire insurance industry. Given every driver in the state has to have auto insurance, and if PlaceboCare gets put into law, every person would have to have health insurance, the philosophy of the operation of that power is something that should not be divorced by three years from the expression of will by the public.
Oh, and before you Democrats scream that it was a partisan Tommy Thompson that got the term changed from a fixed term to one of the governor’s discretion, it was done by a Democratic Legislature.
